Patriarch Alexy: information work is important form of church witness to Truth

The information work of the Church has become an important form of witness to the Truth before the world, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy said in his report to the 2008 Bishops’ Council.

‘Archpastors and pastors can and must preach today not only from church ambos but also through all the modern means of communication’, His Holiness stressed.

He noted that the number of information materials about the work of the Church considerably increased in recent years in the CIS and Baltic countries and the attitude of commentaries on church topics became more positive. He singled out from the reasons for this improvement the effective work of diocesan press services set up since the 2004 Bishops’ Council and the diocesan mass media.

‘With the rapid development of church websites we have overcome the main shortcoming of the previous years, which was a lack of immediacy’, he stressed.

The information work however still seems to be in the periphery of work in many dioceses. ‘Some of them have not even found time to organize a full-fledged and meaningful website’, Patriarch Alexy noticed, adding, ‘Clearly, it points to an inability to present events to the public rather than to a lack of them. I hope this situation will be rectified in the nearest future’.

Patriarch Alexy called upon the Council members to think about the creation of Orthodox-oriented television. It is to become ‘an alternative to the TV-production which have taken over the screens, promoting the religion of entertainment, consumerism, violence, libertinism, luxury and vulgarity’.

In this connection, the Patriarch reminded the Council of the fruitful cooperation that the Orthodox Encyclopedia church research center has maintained with the Russia channel and expressed hope that the Orthodox channels in Moscow, Kiev and Yekaterinburg would continue developing. In addition, it is planned to broaden the Internet broadcasting through the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate, Patriarchia.ru.

His Holiness Alexy stated that the Orthodox book publishing continued to develop intensively and made a special mention of the work at the many-volumed Orthodox Encyclopedia, a fundamental project of a high academic significance.

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